The communication design and media analytics double major will intern with Bloomberg Law in Washington, D.C., this summer.
Nyah Phengsitthy ’23, a communication design and media analytics double major, was recently awarded a $3,000 internship stipend from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the charitable arm for the E.W. Scripps Company.
The managing editor of The Pendulum, Elon News Network’s student-run newspaper, is slated to complete a summer internship with Bloomberg Law in Washington, D.C. She will work on the news outlet’s environment desk for 10 weeks, writing environment and energy reports while shadowing reporters and editors.
Upon successful completion of her internship, Phengsitthy will be eligible for the foundation’s $500 follow-up scholarship.
The rising senior said she looks forward to a busy summer in the nation’s capital, and can’t wait to “see how they operate the journalism world in Washington, D.C.”
After completing a social media and marketing internship last year, Phengsitthy explained that she was drawn to news coverage this summer and further developing her reporting skills.
“I’ve known that I wanted to write more and have an opportunity to expand my journalism career,” she said. “This internship also will expose me to new subjects and areas I’m not extremely familiar with, so it’ll be exciting to learn something new and bring that knowledge back to Elon.”
But the student journalist doesn’t lack for professional experience. Phengsitthy was selected as a 2022 Reporting Fellow by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and reported from Ghana earlier this year. She investigated how orphanages in West Africa have operated during the pandemic, and her project examined teacher shortages, license renewal issues and the multitude of other challenges facing orphans and facilities.
Phengsitthy called her reporting experience in Ghana “eye-opening.”
“I was proud to work with two different orphanage operators who dealt with the pandemic two different ways,” she said. “Both orphanage operators are dealing with issues we see every day here in the U.S. — teacher shortages, lack of staff and even insufficient funding for education. Being able to see those stories and share them with the rest of the world was an interesting experience.”
Phengsitthy’s work stateside has also garnered praise. At the North Carolina College Media Association’s annual conference in February, she collected four first-place awards, winning the contest’s Feature Writing, News Writing, Illustration/Graphic and Single- or Two-Page Design categories.
In addition to her Pendulum responsibilities, Phengsitthy – an Odyssey Scholar – serves as the vice president of Omicron Delta Kappa, and is a member of the President’s Student Leadership Advisory Council and Society of Professional Journalists.